Derby v Fulham 1983-Fans Memories

[BarneyTravers]

Bit of a random post:


Dreadful day all round and I have my own memories which are the following:

Pigs Head thrown from the stand above us.

The yellow and light blue pringle diamond jumper i wore on the day.

The long walk from the train station

Never ever feeling that we'd score

A newspaper type programme that I purchased but I subsequently lost.

Hoping against hope that there would be some kind of reprieve

Seeing a band in town on the sunday night buoyed in hearing that fulham were asking for a replay!

[LBNo11]

...no happy memories of that day, their fans throwing coins at us, having to defend ourselves with corrugated iron sheets, their fans spilling onto the pitch and lining the touchline and aiming kicks at our players. Soon after our great little band of brothers was broken up by Clay and seventeen more years of bumping around in the lower divisions followed.

Oh! here is the newspaper style programme:-

[Chopper]

Yeah I remember it pretty vividly as well. I was about 15 and went full of hope. Game was poor from our point of view and with hindsight we were unlikely to get the result we needed.

I remember coins being thrown at us but didn't see the pig's head. Thought it odd that Derby fans would feel that way towards us.

I remember having to run back to our car to avoid getting caught by Derby fans in the aftermath. Never really scared but that may have been as much due to naivety as anything else.

I remember the long drive home, listening to the radio talking about the travesty of the fans on the pitch. The possibility that Fulham would appeal and believing we might still have a chance of going up.

I remember passing the Fulham supporters coach and wanting to let them know it might not be over but seeing a coach full of miserable and down hearted souls and realising that it probably was over.

I remember hating Derby for a long time afterwards. Dad didn't take me to an away game after that, though we have subsequently been together (Shrewsbury in the Cup in 95 or so).

It was the beginning of the end, Fulham dropped down the league and for a while I lost interest as music and girls took a more prominent role in my life.

Amazing how things have changed.

[White Noise]

Before my time but an interesting analysis written last year on a Derby site. Is this a fair account? -

http://www.therams.co.uk/archive1982/Derby-County-1-0-Fulham-Mon-02-1983/article-1113565-detail/article.html

Derby County 1 - 0 Fulham (Mon 02 May 1983)

Wednesday, June 24, 2009, 13:21

by Gerald Mortimer


Bobby Davison's stunning goal crowned a magnificent Derby County performance at the Baseball Ground on Saturday.

Archie Gemmill, Kenny Burns and Paul Hooks were back. So was the skill and spirit to banish the previous week's two nightmare defeats.

Fulham, neck and neck with Leicester City had to win and hope for the best but they seldom penetrated Derby's excellent defence.

But, because nothing at the Baseball Ground is ever straightforward, the game ended in uncertainty with fans, ringing the touchline, encroaching on the pitch and, eventually forcing an abandonment, although this was not clear at the time.

Malcolm Macdonald, absolutely right to complain, wants the game to be replayed, so Leicester, held to a 0-0 draw by Burnley at Filbert Street are not yet entirely certain that they have been promoted.

This report is concerned with the game rather than the crowd troubles and, although referee Ray Chadwick says that there were still 78 second left, Derby had beaten Fulham in the 94 minutes which were played.

Quite where the referee found all this stoppage time is one of the many issues which must be examined elsewhere.

Derby's situation at the start of the match meant that they had to win to make absolutely sure of staying in the Second Division.

A draw would have put the odds heavily in their favour and, as events turn out elsewhere, the 46 points they already had were enough to see them home.

The victory pushed the Rams up to 13th place, which considering the long months spent at the foot of the tables is a staggering recovery.

Even if the Football League were to dock Derby's three points because of the crowd trouble, and this is unlikely, Bolton, Rotherham and either Crystal Palace or Burnley who meet at Selhurst Park tomorrow, would finish below them.

We all know that now but, as the Rams ran out, they felt that there was still a danger of being in the Third Division next season and that the marvelous unbeaten run of 15 League games could still be meaningless.

It was a situation to test the strongest nerves, hence the decision to patch up Gemmill, Burns and Hooks, who were as keen to play as Peter Taylor was to see them in his side.

Gemmill lasted 81 minutes before limping off to a standing ovation. He had been an inspiration and Taylor's decision to bring him back to Derby from Wigan Athletic in November was finally confirmed, if more proof were needed, as a master-stroke.

Burns and Hooks were also splendid and the presence of these three lifted players who had wobbled against Blackburn and Crystal Palace so that the Rams finished with a rounded, satisfying team performance.

Paul Emson, in his last match for Derby, scorched past Jeff Hopkins time and time again and played in the way we always hoped he would. If only he could have produced a measure of consistency.

George Foster was immaculate at centre-half, John Barton was back on form and Paul Futcher's tackling was miraculous in it's precision. The defence looked unbeatable, especially with Steve Cherry so safe behind them.

Then there was Mick Brolly, when he starts to win as many balls in the air as he did against Fulham, you feel that it is his day and, apart from hitting the woodwork, he had a part in the decisive goal.

Only because Derby played so well were they able to contain an excellent Fulham side who were so colse to going from the Third Division to the First in successive seasons.

Ray Houghton is one of the best free transfer signings of all time and Fulham built delightfully from the back.

Gordon Davies was almost in during the first half, Foster producing enough of a challenge to check him, and a chip from Robert Wilson left Dean Coney with a clear header.

Cherry did extremely well to move back across the line and turn the ball behind.

Brolly came closest to a goal in the first-half when, after 16 minutes, he met Emson's centre with a looping header.

Peyton as beaten, the header bounced down off the bar and without knowing much about it, the goalkeeper kept the ball out and clutched it.

Hopkins managed to avoid a booking when challenging clumsily for a header, he kicked Hooks in the stomach. Hooks pinned him after 55 minutes and this time the caution was imposed.
Brolly was again out of luck when, from Kevin Wilson's pass he hit his shot against a post.

But the goal, after 75 minutes, was worth waiting for, an absolute classic.

A centre from Barton passed through the penalty area and was retrieved by Emson. He checked back inside and hit over a cross which Brolly headed into the middle.

Davison, turning and falling, met it with a volley that no goalkeeper on earth would have stopped. "If you catch them right, they look good, " said Davison, "if you don't they can go anywhere."

Cherry, with spectators on either side of his goal, again did well to tip over a shot from Houghton, in Fulham's last fling.

The Rams had won and won well. It is so sad and deflating that the issue should be clouded by the crowd problems at the end.

Whatever the authorities decide, the Rams are on their way again. When Taylor took over in November, only faith in him and the men he gathered around him prevented the fans from writing off Derby as relegation fodder.

Taylor has delivered the goods. Now hold on to your hats for next season.

Derby County: Cherry; Barton, Burns, Gemmill, Foster, Futcher, Brolly, Davison, Wilson (K), Hooks, Emson. McAlle replaced Gemmill after 81 minutes.

Fulham: Peyton; Hopkins, Lock, O'Driscoll, Brown, Gale, Davies, Wilson.R, Coney, Houghton, Lewington. Reeves replaced O'Driscoll after 78 minutes.

Referee: R. Chadwick. (Darwen)

Attendance: 21,124.

Tournament: English Division 2
Date: Mon 02 May 1983

[Scrumpy]

The 'Big Match' that I never managed to get to. I must have been about 16 and my mate had just passed his driving test and bought a right dodgy red Princess car. It was a heap of sh1t and started bellowing smoke half way up the M1. I was gutted as I was out-voted by the 3 others and we limped our way home in 2nd gear, listening with sinking heart to match reports on the radio.

When I was dropped off home my brother told me what had happened. He said we would never have a better chance of getting to the 1st Division and reckoned it would all be downhill from here on. With the optimism of youth, I said that we'd be back up the following year!

He was right.
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Oh, and I would have been wearing a pastel pink or banana yellow jumper, with bleached jeans and harrington jacket. Jeez, the things we thought we looked cool in. :o

[Lighthouse]

I was working  on a 12 hour shift. 7 am until 7Pm. People I worked with were very good and left me to tune in to a little radio to LBC. Horrible day. At 7 PM I had a Migrane you wouldn't believe. Could hardly move.

The club going to the FA and the fans outside supporting the clubs efforts were on the news the following week.  I have never forgiven Derby or their fans since.

[BarneyTravers]

Bleached jeans scrumpy....bleached jeans.

[Dragoman]

Memories that still rankle. Yet the day began so full of hope. My mate and I drove up there and we parked a longish way from the ground. We found a small pub in a Coronation St. type road and I remember being surprised at how cheap the price of a pint was.

At the ground I recall the sheer animosity of the Derby fans. We had urine filled condoms lobbed at us. The debacle at the end when their fans crowded onto the pitch and obstructed one or two of our players. The outrage of being denied promotion in such a way after such a good season.

Then there was the long drive back home listening to the radio which hinted that there might be a replay but we all know the outcome.....

When I think back to this game now I always reflect on Malcolm MacDonald who I thought was a brilliant manager at the time. By the end of the next season he had gone and his personal demons had surfaced. I wonder how his life and his career might have turned out had we gained promotion that day.